TCL 85-inch RM9L RGB Mini LED Review

For the past few years, Mini-LED TVs have largely followed the same formula. Manufacturers would focus on increasing brightness, adding more dimming zones, and refining local dimming algorithms in an effort to improve contrast and HDR performance. Then this year, TCL did something a little different and surprised everyone at CES. Not only did the company show off its new Super Quantum Dot TVs, or SQD Mini-LED, but it also introduced its first RGB TV.

For those unfamiliar with the technology, RGB LED TVs replace the traditional white or blue LED backlight with individually controlled red, green, and blue LEDs. Instead of producing white light and filtering it into color afterward, the display is generating those colors directly at the backlight level itself. TCL takes things a step further by individually controlling those RGB LEDs, allowing for more precise management of both color and luminance across the screen.

The advantage is fairly easy to understand. Traditional LCD TVs rely heavily on color filters, and those filters inevitably reduce efficiency because some of the light is lost in the process. By generating red, green, and blue light directly from the backlight, RGB displays have the potential to produce brighter colors, greater color volume, and higher overall brightness without washing out the image.

Photo Credit: TCL

So you’re probably wondering how RGB Mini-LED differs from TCL’s new SQD Mini-LED technology. Both are designed to improve color performance, brightness, and efficiency, but they take very different approaches to getting there. SQD Mini-LED still uses a blue LED backlight and creates the final color through quantum dots and TCL CSOT’s UltraColor Filter. RGB Mini-LED goes a step further by changing the backlight itself, using separate red, green, and blue LEDs to generate color before it ever reaches the LCD layer.

That difference is what makes RGB Mini-LED so interesting. Rather than relying as heavily on filters to create color, the backlight is already producing red, green, and blue light at the source. In theory, that gives the display more direct control over color, greater color volume, and the ability to maintain richer saturation as brightness increases.

Features

This brings us to the TCL RM9L, which sits at the top of TCL’s lineup as the company’s flagship RGB TV for 2026. The RM9L is available in three sizes:

• 85-inch – $5,499 (model reviewed)

The RM9L is no slouch when it comes to specs either. TCL claims a peak brightness of up to 9,000 nits, putting it not far behind its sister TV, the X11L. It also features up to 5,600 discrete dimming zones and more than 16,000 color zones. Managing all of that is TCL’s new TSR AI Pro processor, which is designed to make better use of the TV’s hardware even when the content itself doesn’t fully take advantage of what the panel can do.

Photo Credit: TCL

The RM9L supports native 4K at 144Hz, with the option to switch to 1080p at 288Hz using TCL’s Game Accelerator feature. TCL says the TV uses narrow-band RGB LEDs paired with its CSOT UltraColor Filter and a new 30-bit-by-3 backlight controller as part of a 120-bit color control system. In simpler terms, the TV has much finer control over the individual red, green, and blue channels, which should help with better shadow detail and more consistent color across a screen this large.

TCL is also using its CSOT WHVA 2.0 Ultra panel, which is designed to improve native contrast while maintaining wider viewing angles and reducing reflections. That’s paired with the company’s ZeroBorder design, which keeps the visible frame around the image to a minimum and becomes even more noticeable the bigger the screen.

On the software side, the RM9L runs Google TV on Android 14 and includes support for Google’s newer AI assistant, Gemini. Instead of being limited to basic content searches, Gemini can handle more conversational questions and follow-up requests, which I’ll get into more in the Google TV section later in the review. The TV also supports all of the major HDR and audio formats you’d expect at this level, including Dolby Vision IQ, HDR10+, IMAX Enhanced, and Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. There’s also an over-the-air update that will be happening later this year to bring Xbox Game Pass.

Design

The RM9L looks very similar to the X11L that we saw earlier this year, but there are two noticeable differences. The full-width Bang & Olufsen sound system mounted beneath the screen is gone, and TCL has swapped the warmer bronze finish of the X11L for more of a gunmetal gray. Without that large speaker system underneath, the RM9L has a cleaner and slightly more traditional look from the front. TCL also uses what it calls its ZeroBorder design, and while that might sound like a small thing, the slimmer bezel does make a difference once you’re watching a movie.

The screen itself has a slightly glossy finish with an anti-reflective coating, and it does a great job of cutting down glare in brighter rooms. Across all sizes, TCL uses wide-set feet for the stand, which makes sense considering the size and weight of these TVs. The RM9L is a beast of a display. Even the 85-inch model weighs about 114 pounds, yet the panel itself is only about 1.4 inches thick.

Around back, TCL includes four HDMI 2.1 ports, and this year all four support 4K at 144Hz as well as 1080p at up to 288Hz, with HDMI 1 handling eARC. Wireless connectivity includes Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.4. There’s also two USB 3.0 ports (one on the side of the bezel), along with a USB 2.0 port, Ethernet, optical audio out, and a built-in ATSC 3.0 tuner for next-generation over-the-air broadcasts.

Remote

The remote is identical to the one TCL included with the X11L earlier this year, and that’s a great thing. The shape is a little more squared off, but it still feels comfortable in the hand. The brushed silver finish has a subtle metallic sheen that gives it a more premium look than the matte remotes TCL has used in the past.

The main controls, including Home and Settings, are centered in the middle of the remote. Just below those are shortcut buttons for Netflix, Prime Video, and YouTube, with a dedicated TCLTV+ button underneath for quick access to TCL’s free streaming channels. Up top, you’ll find the microphone button for voice commands, along with the input button and directional pad. The remote is also backlit and automatically lights up when you pick it up, which is especially useful in a dark room.

I’m a big fan of some of the extra controls TCL added to this remote, and I’m glad they carried over from the X11L. On the lower left side, there’s a customizable button that can be programmed to launch your favorite app. Along the right side, there’s a rocker that lets you quickly adjust the TV’s backlight brightness, and just below that is a dedicated picture mode button. I found myself using that one quite a bit during testing since it makes switching between picture modes much quicker than digging through the settings menu. The quick menu system introduced last year is also still here, giving you access to the settings you’re most likely to adjust without having to jump all the way into the main menus.

Performance

I was really curious about the performance of the RM9L, and I know a lot of you are as well. Especially since TCL came out with the X11L, which I still think is one of the best TVs of 2026, and we’re already closing in on the end of the year. On paper, the RM9L checks just about every box you’d want for picture quality: full Rec. 2020 coverage, a more powerful processor with improved upscaling, a massive increase in dimming zones for better backlight control, and brightness claims reaching up to 9,000 nits. That all sounds great on a spec sheet, but the real question here is what RGB brings to the table and how the RM9L actually looks in person. After spending time with it, the short answer is that it delivers.

Right out of the box, colors look more balanced than what I’ve seen from TCL in past years, without that familiar red push. You get six picture modes in both SDR and HDR: Movie, Filmmaker Mode, Intelligent, Vivid, Sports, and Standard. Filmmaker Mode was introduced last year, and without making any adjustments, it’s easily the most accurate option. In that mode, most color errors were already below the visible threshold. Movie mode does tend to have a bit more “pop” if you’re ok with losing just a bit of accuracy.

For Dolby Vision, you get Light, Dark, Filmmaker, and IQ, and I found Dolby Vision Light offered the best overall balance in my room. TCL has also carried over a couple of processing features we saw last year, including Precision Detail and Super Resolution. Precision Detail is only available with Dolby Vision, while Super Resolution works across all content. It’s similar in concept to Sony’s Reality Creation. Whether you like it will come down to personal preference, but I found it useful more often than not.

Let’s start with color performance because that’s ultimately one of the main reasons a TV like the RM9L exists in the first place. As I mentioned earlier, RGB technology isn’t just about brightness. It’s about expanding color capability beyond what traditional Mini-LED displays have typically been able to achieve.

For a little context, Rec. 2020 is the color space defined for 4K and 8K HDR content, but most movies and shows today are still graded primarily within the smaller DCI-P3 color space, which sits inside that larger Rec. 2020 container. On top of that, a lot of SDR content is still mastered in Rec. 709, which is even more limited. Because of that, most of what you’re watching today isn’t taking full advantage of what panels like this can do yet. There are a few exceptions, like The Matrix, Aquaman, and Inside Out, where you can see that extended color range comes into play, but for the most part, Rec. 2020 support right now is more about future-proofing than something that completely changes the look of every piece of content.

With that said, the RM9L delivers excellent color performance with both SDR and HDR. I measured just over 92% Rec. 2020 coverage and 100% of P3. It’s worth noting that there are multiple ways brands report color gamut performance. You’ll often see both BT.2020 coverage ratio and BT.2020 area ratio listed. Most manufacturers base their 100% BT.2020 claims on area ratio, and by that metric the RM9L does in fact measure at 100% area coverage. Even at 92% based on traditional coverage measurements, it’s still one of the highest Rec. 2020 coverage I’ve personally measured on a consumer TV to date. Of course, measurements only tell part of the story. What matters more is how those numbers translate into real content, and that’s where the RM9L really shines.

Colors are vibrant without looking like TCL simply turned the saturation control up. A great example is Toy Story 5, particularly the scene where Jessie meets Lilypad. Jessie’s red hat has an intensity to it that immediately stands out. Lilypad’s green is equally impressive, with a richness that’s hard to ignore. Even some of the less obvious colors in the scene show what the RM9L is doing. The yellow curtains in the background have a warmth to them.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, movies with a more restrained color palette benefit as well. Watching Batman v Superman, skin tones remained consistent from scene to scene, and the RM9L didn’t try to inject extra color into a movie that intentionally has a more muted appearance.

One of the biggest questions surrounding RGB LED technology right now is color crosstalk. In simple terms, color crosstalk occurs when light from one RGB backlight zone slightly influences neighboring pixels that are supposed to display a different color. Because the red, green, and blue LEDs light up a group of pixels rather than controlling each pixel individually, there can be situations where the dominant color within a zone slightly affects adjacent colors.

For example, if most of the pixels within a zone are displaying a bright red object, the backlight will generate primarily red light for that area. The LCD layer and color filters then do the work of shaping that light into the final image. Under certain circumstances, particularly when highly saturated colors sit directly next to lighter shades or white objects, a small amount of that dominant color can occasionally spill into the neighboring area.

This was one of the first things I went looking for during testing. The most obvious example I came across wasn’t even in a movie or TV show. It was actually within some of the apps on the home screen, where I could occasionally spot a slight color difference around certain icons, such as the Prime Video app. Outside of a few isolated instances, I rarely noticed it. Movies and games were far less revealing. Across the multiple scenes I watched, color crosstalk was largely a non-issue, and certainly nowhere near the level some people may have feared when RGB Mini-LED technology was first announced.

Given how bright the X11L was when I tested it earlier this year, it probably shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that the RM9L gets very close. After letting a full black screen run for a few minutes, which TCL engineers recommended before taking measurements, the RM9L reached 7,287 nits on a 10% window and just under 9,000 nits on a 1% window. Those are extremely high numbers for a consumer television and put the RM9L near the top of anything I’ve measured so far when it comes to peak brightness.

Of course, brightness measurements only matter if that output translates into actual content, and thankfully, it does. Watching Michael, in particular the Billie Jean scene, makes it immediately obvious just how much light output the RM9L has available. The bright light behind Michael as he dances has a good amount of intensity, but it doesn’t simply turn into a blown-out patch of white. There’s still definition around the brighter areas of the image, which helps give the scene much more depth. Later, as the film cuts between Michael accepting awards and walking the red carpet, the camera flashes really show what this TV can do with small, bright highlights. Each flash has an almost instantaneous pop against the dark background.

With brightness levels this high, the obvious concern becomes black level performance. Historically, one of the biggest challenges for LCD TVs has been balancing high brightness without introducing elevated blacks or excessive blooming. TCL takes a slightly different approach here than some other manufacturers. Rather than aggressively dimming bright highlights in an effort to eliminate every trace of blooming, TCL seems more willing to allow a small amount of haloing if it means preserving the intensity of those highlights.

One of my go-to scenes for testing this, and one I’ve mentioned in previous reviews, is the Osaka Continental scene in John Wick: Chapter 4. There are several conversations between John Wick and Shimazu set against dimly lit environments, with smaller bright objects and highlights scattered throughout the frame. Despite the tremendous light output available, the RM9L keeps those dark portions of the image black while still allowing the brighter elements to retain their intensity. TCL’s local dimming and backlight control are doing a lot of work here.

Letterbox bars also stayed consistently black throughout my movie testing. Is it completely bloom-free? No. OLED still has the advantage there because of its pixel-level light control. But in actual movies and TV shows, blooming was largely a non-issue, especially when viewing the RM9L head-on. Native contrast measured 7,146:1 which is great for a Mini-LED panel.

Off-axis performance was another area where the RM9L showed a noticeable improvement. Both color and brightness hold up better as you move around the room, which is especially important on a screen this large. Compared with more typical Mini-LED LCDs, the image stays more consistent from wider seating positions instead of quickly washing out. I was able to move out to roughly the 45-degree mark before the picture started to noticeably shift. Beyond that, some minor color changes become visible and blooming is a little easier to see, but overall, the RM9L has great viewing angles.

One of the biggest improvements, much like what we saw from TCL earlier this year, comes from the new TSR AI Pro processor, particularly with 1080p material. I spent some time watching the 1080p version of Edge of Tomorrow, and the RM9L handled it really well. The image was upscaled cleanly, with enough added detail to bring out the textures in Tom Cruise’s exosuit and finer facial details without making anything look artificial. There is a sharpness slider, and it’s worth paying attention to depending on which picture preset you’re using.

In Standard mode, for example, sharpness is set to 50 by default, which I found to be way too aggressive. For my taste, somewhere around 10 to 12 looked best. If you prefer a slightly sharper image, I could see going up to around 15 to 20, but I personally wouldn’t push it much beyond that as you’ll start introducing some artifacts.

Motion handling is another area where TCL has made noticeable improvements. Slow pans and faster movement look cleaner than on previous models, especially with lower frame-rate or more compressed content. The Blur and Judder Reduction controls also give you a decent amount of flexibility depending on how smooth you want the image to look.

Like most TVs, pushing those settings too far will introduce the Soap Opera Effect. I found that keeping both controls around 2 struck a good balance. You can move them up to 6 or 7 if you prefer a smoother image, but at that point, motion starts to look a little too processed for my taste. That improvement carries over nicely into sports as well. With the NFL season coming back, I spent some time watching preseason games, and motion looked clean throughout. Players stayed well defined during plays, and the ball was easy to track as it moved across the field.

Audio performance is really good for built-in TV speakers. The Bang & Olufsen system has enough clarity and output for everyday viewing, and dialogue comes through cleanly without sounding overly thin. TCL also gives you the option of pairing the TV with wireless satellite speakers and a wireless subwoofer if you want to build out the system a bit more. Personally, if you’re spending this much on a TV like the RM9L, I think that’s worth considering, or even stepping up to a dedicated soundbar or separate speaker system. The onboard B&O setup is better than what you’ll find on a lot of TVs, but a more complete audio system is going to do a better job matching the scale.

Gaming

TCL has put a lot of emphasis on gaming over the past few years, and the RM9L continues that trend. All four HDMI ports support the TV’s gaming features, so you’re not limited to one or two specific inputs. The TV also supports Auto Game Mode, which detects a compatible game signal and automatically switches over to Game Mode and brings up TCL’s Game Bar. That helps make sure you’re getting the lowest possible input lag without having to manually change settings every time you start playing. I measured input lag at around 12 milliseconds with a 4K/60Hz signal.

I spent most of my time with 007: First Light, and the outdoor environments have plenty of punch. On a screen this size, the added sense of scale also works really well with a game like this, especially during driving some of the larger action scenes. I’m also more of a casual gamer, so I’m not going to pretend I can feel the difference between milliseconds of input lag. For me, what matters is that the controls feel responsive, and there’s not a considerable amount of blur on the screen. The RM9L does all of that really well.

inal Thoughts

The biggest question with the RM9L might actually have less to do with how good the TV is and more to do with where it sits next to the X11L. Do you go with TCL’s RGB approach and get the added color capability, or stick with the X11L and its SQD panel, which delivers similarly strong overall performance without the potential for color crosstalk? I think that’s going to be the biggest question TCL may find itself facing with these two TVs.

Don’t get me wrong, the RM9L is an excellent TV and one of the better RGB implementations I’ve tested this year. It gets extremely bright, black levels are impressive, and color performance is outstanding. More importantly, the RGB backlight doesn’t feel like a gimmick. There are situations where that added color capability is easy to appreciate. RGB Mini-LED may be one of the newest trends in the TV industry, but TCL’s implementation feels polished.

And that’s really what makes the RM9L so good. It gives TCL another option at the top of its lineup. If you want to see where TCL is heading next with RGB technology, the RM9L makes a very strong case and shows that RGB Mini-LED is more than just another talking point on a spec sheet.